From Open Collections to Art: Vancouver artist Hillary Webb

Local artist and librarian Hillary Webb is using images found in UBC Library’s open source collections to create original art.

The pieces, a mélange of historical photos from UBC Library’s Open Collections and embroidery work, were born out of Webb’s one-month long artist’s residency in 2016 in a town called Sointula on Malcolm Island, off northern Vancouver Island.

Webb, who completed her undergraduate degree in textiles at the Ontario College of Art and Design, comes by her interest in embroidery naturally. “It’s been a family practice,” she says, “My grandma and dad ran a smocking supply company for years, so it has always been in the family. I have been doing it for over 15 years.”

Before setting off for the residency, Webb did extensive research about Sointula and Malcolm Island, finding photos in both the Vancouver Archives and UBC Library’s Open Collections, in the Fisherman Publishing Society Collection. The collection of almost 4,000 photographs, part of UBC Library’s Rare Books and Special Collections, were taken between 1862 and 1980 and are from The Fisherman Publishing Society, which was formed in 1937 to publish The Fisherman, a bi-weekly newspaper. Sponsored by the Salmon Purse Seiners Union and the Pacific Coast Fishermen’s Union, the newspaper documented industry events and encouraged unity among West Coast fishermen; today, the newspaper continues publication under the United Fishermen and Allied Workers’ Union (UFAWU).

Fishing Fleet by Hillary Webb

To prepare the images for embroidery work, Webb had the high resolution photographs printed to about 2’ x 3’ on paper and canvas then stretched around a canvas frame. She looked to local plants to dye her threads. “My husband found a book about First People’s plant technology by Nancy Turner and sent it to me while I was in Sointula, and this helped inform my dye experiments.” From black twinberry, used by the Haida as a hair tonic to prevent greying, to Horsetail, a local weed that produces a light green colour, Webb used as much local flora and fauna in her work as possible. “I also did a lot of overdyeing, which is mixing colours together,” she explains.

Webb’s use of historical images and photographs is a more recent part of her practice. “It’s something I’ve gotten into over the past five years,” she shares. “It started with postcards. I had always collected them, but I didn’t know what to do with them, and then I started sewing through them and it grew from there.” As for her selection of photos for the pieces created during her residency, it all comes back to a sense of place. “What I love about historical images is the connection to place. I loved working on images of this particular place while actually being there. Malcolm Island only has about 800 residents. It was an amazing experience to be in such a quiet, peaceful place.”